MP3 Files and Streaming

Is there really any music in an MP3 file before you add the MP3 player and your own ears and brain?

Underneath it all, the content of an MP3 file is an arrangement of 1’s and 0’s that create a certain wave function when run through the right equipment, moving air molecules. The same is true of music on a CD-- “music” on a CD is just a bunch of pits burned into the media until it is run on a CD player. It’s also like the groove on the side of a vinyl record (for those old enough to remember what those are!). You won’t hear anything until you spin the record and put something pointy into the groove.

Think of it this way. If you try to open an MP3 file using a program other than one which understands MP3s, the MP3 file will be complete gibberish to the other program. The MP3 file and the MP3 player exist independently, for sure. But they also have a very special relationship between them that when they’re brought together in a certain way, an entirely new thing is created— the capability to move air in a very specific way.

There’s no way to hear the music in an MP3 file without running it through an MP3 player. Obviously, you need both to hear the music (plus a set of speakers, or a pair of headphones)..

And of course, there’s one other important factor—you. Without your ears and without your brain, or there’s no music. All these factors need to collude if there is to be any music from an MP3 file.

In short, the only way there can ever be any music from an MP3 file is if you’re there to hear it (just like the fact that the only way there can be a rainbow is if you’re there to perceive it).

Listening to music represents a very deep level of communion. There are other creatures for whom music does not exist.